HE dreamy title,`A Sense of Place,` suggested an emphasis on the role of place in writing and the session gathered writers in whose work place plays an intrinsic part: Daniyal Mueenuddin`s In Other Rooms Other Wonders is rooted in southern Punjab and Lahore; Jeet ThayiPs Narcopolis is a Bombay bhaji through and through; H.M. Naqvi`s Home Boy is played out against New York in the aftermath of 9/11; and Ebba Koch, the art historian whose passion for Mughal architecture has defined her work for the past 30 years. The choice of moderator though, was bewildering Omar Waraich, a senior journalist whose main interests are politics and current affairs.

The session started out encouragingly, with speakers talking about how the process of understanding a place has informed their work. Koch examined her study of Mughal architecture in both India and Pakistan and its echoes in the social fabric of society. She declared the Mughal era as being a `utopia of the past` for the present generation of South Asians a legacy of religious peace, intellectual learning and sophistication a heritage that lives on in any retelling of Mughal history. Naqvi recounted his all encompassing research for Home Boy, absorbing New York in every way his characters could imagine, as well as helpfully naming the best place for nihari in the city on a homesick day. Thayil mentioned how Narcopolis came from his unconsciously stored memories of Bombay from the past 30 years. The unwrapping of such personal processes offered insights into not just the craft of these writers but also into the craft of writing itself and its profound relationship with the author`s world.Thereafter though, the session went awry, not least due to the moderator`s inability to keep the panellists on topic. Of course, writers love to speak about their work (and themselves) and so the discussion rambled. In reply to a question about whether the plot is constructed fully before the actual writing process begins, Mueenuddin said that stories choose the author, hence even the author is trying to find out where the story is going. This uncertainty within the writing process, he said, keeps the author motivated and usually translates into interesting reading for the audience. Naqvi further elaborated by saying that characters are individual voices with agency and so to tell them what to do would be peculiar.

The speakers also talked about their differences in terms of persistence.

Mueenuddin confessed that he abandoned work on two novels before he completed his short story collection he said that too much work on one project eventually turns the project repulsive to the writer. Koch, though, thought differently and said that working on her subject has been an obsession for decades.

The idea of place finally returned to the discussion towards the end of the session with Naqvi saying that in the context of Karachi, the sense of place matters immensely while recreating the city in prose. `In large cities, like Karachi,` he said, `a story lies under every stone.

Anam Haq